West Palm Beach - Dive RAMPAGE! 22-Aug-98

Dive Trip Report to: West Palm Beach
Purpose: TO DIVE WPB!!!

Dive Reports:

Dive #1: Sunday, 22-Aug, Afternoon Dive. My Dive #235
A. Dive Boat / Location: Rampage / Double Ledges
B. Conditions: Visibility: 70 ft - Great Vis
Seas: 1 - 2 ft, building slightly
Water Temp: 86 on the bottom
Skies: Some cloud cover, CNB to the south
Air Temp: high 80's
C. Dive Information: Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 90 ft for 28 min,
, Me: Analog 92 ft, Cochran Captain (real bad computer) 85 ft for 28 min.
Dive Partner P: 93 ft
Dive Partner M: 87' for 25 min.
Air consumption: Me: 3600 - 1400 lb (120 cu ft),
Dive Partner P: 3200 - 900 lb (80 cu ft),
Dive Partner M: 3250 - 500 lb (80 cu ft).
Current: Very Strong!
Description: Well, we wanted to do a wreck first! The Mizpah had zero vis due to the outgoing tide. The Princess Ann was out due to the very strong current! Per Capt Bob - you would have been plastered against the ship and never broken loose! So, the Capt picked the 90 ft Double Ledges! There were less than a dozen divers on board, so it was not crowded at all! It was to be a very fast drift dive. We entered, got to the bottom and tried to stay together. I was looking for bugs, but with the current, did not even want to see one! You'd destroy the reef trying to get it and loose the leader! It was a fast drift along the reefline. There were lots of colors, really great vis, blue water, lots and lots and lots of schools of small fish of all kinds! It was a real change from going from 5 ft vis beach diving to 70' vis here! There were two (one each on separate locations) 1 1/2 ft turtles. They were very friendly, hopefully there will be some pictures coming!

Dive #1: Sunday, 22-Aug, Afternoon Dive. My Dive #236
A. Dive Boat / Location: Rampage Breakers
B. Conditions: Visibility: 30 ft - Seen better, seen worse!
Seas: 2 - 3 ft, building slightly - getting a little rough
Water Temp: 86 on the bottom
Skies: Some cloud cover, CNB to the south
Air Temp: high 80's
C. Dive Information: Depth & Time:
Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 64 ft for 37 min,
, Me: Analog 66 ft, Cochran Captain (real bad computer) 60 ft for 37 min.
Dive Partner P: 61 ft
Dive Partner M: 61' for 37 min
Air consumption: Me: 3600 - 1700 lb (120 cu ft),
Dive Partner P: 3200 - 1050 lb (80 cu ft),
Dive Partner M: 3200 - 500 lb (80 cu ft).
Current: Strong!
Description: Well the Breakers are always great. Lots of color, lots of fish, lots of relief - it's always a great dive. Our divemaster caught a 1 ft squid, I've hopefully got a few pictures of it. There was one fish - got to look it up - that was an orange yellow color - strange for that fish. Looking it up - it's a White Spotted File Fish in its Orange Phase (p 342 Reef Fish 2nd ed). One big spotted moray - got some pics of it also! It had it's mouth open real wide into the current - looked like it was going to bite off you hand. Again, we'll fill in more details as I get reports from the other divers. One dive saw a BIG (6') Barracuda - don't know how I missed that one! This was another great Breakers Dive. One dive in the group didn't have a computer, so we were limited to the 30 min limit! With a computer, we would have had another 10 - 15 min, air permitting!